DENDRAL

DENDRAL was a pioneering computer program developed in the 1960s to help chemists identify unknown chemical compounds. It used artificial intelligence techniques to analyze data from mass spectrometry, a method that reveals molecular structures by measuring the mass of chemical fragments. By applying rules and heuristics, DENDRAL could suggest likely molecular structures based on the experimental data, effectively acting as a scientist's assistant. It was one of the first successful AI systems in scientific research, demonstrating how computers could assist in complex problem-solving tasks in chemistry.